Letter-box.



W. B. BENHAM.

' LETTER BOX. 7 APPLICATION FILED MAY 4, 1910.

Patented Aug. 16, 1910.

WILLIAM B. BENHAM, or WASHINGTON, nrs'rnrc'r or COLUMBIA.

LETTER-BOX.

Specification ofLetters Patent. Patented Aug, 16, 1910.

Application filed May 4, 1910. Serial No. 559,393.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM B. BENI-IAM, a citizen of the United States, of VVashington, District of Columbia, have invented a new and Improved Letter-Box, of which the following is a full description.

The object of the invention is to provide a box with a detachable head for letters and small packages of simple construction which will permit of a letter or package being inserted conveniently with one hand and be proof against rain, sleet, snow and ice.

A further object is to construct a mailbox, the arrangements of the various parts being such as to make it impossible to extract mail-matter from the box when the mailing orifice is open, and to provide a novel form of mailing orifice.

These objects I attain in the construction hereinafter described and defined in the claims.

Reference is made to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a cross section of my improved mail box. Fig. 2 is a cross section of a slightly modified form of my invention;

1 represents the main lower body portion of the box into which the mail-matter is deposited by the shelf or lid 2, and from which it is removed through the downwardly dropping hinged door 3, in the manner usual in this class of boxes. This door is hinged to the lower edge of the floor 4, which has a corrugated surface. The door is provided with a lock 5, and from the side of the box a weather-shield 6, projects outwardly.

The top or cover of the box 7, is a compound curve projecting outwardly beyond the face of the box. At its front edge the concavity forms a gutter which prevents rain or melting snow and ice from dripping down to the mailing-orifice 8' underneath and also prevents dripping upon the mailmatter while it is being inserted during a rain-storm. The cover also extends beyond the sides of the box and slopes backwardly beyond the back of the box thereby causing water to drip clear of the box on all sides.

The mail-box is provided with two horizontally hinged entrance doors, the upper door 9, being hinged at its upper edge, and the lower door 10, at its lower edge, the upper door projecting a short distance beyond the line of the lower door to cause the rain to drip. clear of the upper edge of the lower door. The doors are joined by the connecting link 11, which is hinged to the upper door 9 above and in front of the door-hinge 12; the lower end of the link being hinged to the door 10 above and back of its doorhinge 13. both ends being hinged at such distance from the respective door hinges that when the door 10 is pushed back until its upper edge touches the shelf or lid 2, when the latter is in a horizontal position, the upper door will move backward through the same angle until it touches the projec- 5101114 attached to the sides or top of the box, thereby producing the mailing orifice 8. 1 On the back of the door 10 near its upper edge is hinged one end of the connecting link 16 its other end being hinged to the tilting shelf or lid 2 at such a distance from its supporting hinge 17 that when the door 10 is pushed back into cont-act with the front edge of the lid, it will then be at right angles to its posit-ion when the mailing orifice is closed. j

The shelf or lid 2 is hinged in sucha manner, upon the hinge 17 that it will close itself when pressure is removed from either of the doors andremain in a perpendicular position, thereby closing the mailing orifice. This function is also augmented by the wei ht of the door 9.

The lid or shelf 2 is provided with an arcuate guard 18 of such a diameter as to close the space between its upper edge and the projection 19 which is a part of and extends the whole length of the door 10, there by preventing the abstraction of mail-matter from the receptacle 1. This guard plate is of such a radius, and the pivot of the trap and the points of attachment of the link are so placed, that the distance or clearance between the rear face of the door and the nearest point of the guard plate is maintained practically constant throughout the travel of the door and guard plate. The shelf or lid has small corrugations 20 on its mail receiving surface to lessen the friction of mail-matter in its descent into receptacle 1.

To prevent depredations or pilfering of mail-matter from the box the shelf or lid 2 is so adjusted that upon pushing or press ing the doors 9 or 10 the lower end of the lid in its upward movement will have passed the projection 21 attached to the back or side walls of the box before the mailing orifice 8 has opened wide enough to permit a tool or device being inserted, such attempt being further frustrated by the upper edge of the shelf or lid moving in an upward direction in the act of closing.

While I use but one shelf or lid for receiving and depositing mail-matter, I have made and operated a model having double doors or lids connected as shown in Fig. 2.

The side walls of the box extending from the top downward to the dotted lines 22 are preferably made of cast-iron; the side walls below the line 22 and the bottom are constructed of heavy sheet metal the same being riveted to the head of the box (part above dotted lines 22). My object in having the head of a different material from the lower part of the box is to lessen the weight of the box and by making the head separately, it can be fitted to other boxes now in use of different makes or to boxes whose mailing mechanism is worn out while the lower portion of the boxes may be perfectly sound. By cutting off the upper part of such boxes the separate head can be attached thereby effecting an economy of no small importance. The separate head makes more accessible any part that might be displaced or broken by accident or other cause. The detachable head by reason of its light weight and small size can be economically shipped and the lower portion of the box can be manufactured locally thus avoiding the expense of freighting both material and manufactured product to remote parts of the country.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, in a mail box having an inlet opening in a vertical face thereof, of a door hinged at the lower edge of said opening, a second door hinged at the upper edge of said opening, said second door projecting beyond said first door to form a covering for the opening between said doors, a link connecting said doors, said link pivoted to one of said doors in advance of its point of hinging, and to the other of said doors in the rear of its point of hinging, so that both of said doors may be operated simultaneously and in the same direction by pressure on either one of them, a trap pivoted within the body of the mail-box and normally resting in an approximately vertical position, a link having one end pivoted to one of said doors and its other end pivoted to said trap, so that upon the opening of said door, the trap is moved to an approximately horizontal position, to receive mail matter and prevent access to the contents of the box; the weight of said trap normally holding the entrance doors closed.

2. The combination, in a mail box havin an inlet opening in a vertical face thereof, of a door hinged at the lower edge of said opening, a second door hinged at the upper edge of said opening, said second door projecting beyond said first door to form a covering for the opening between said doors, a link connecting said doors, said link being pivoted to one of said doors in advance of its point of hinging and to the other of said doors in the rear of its point of hinging so that both of said doors may be operated simultaneously and in the same direction by pressure on either one of them, a pair of traps pivoted within the body of the mail box and normally resting in an approximately vertical position, a link having one end pivoted to one of said doors and its other end pivoted to one of said traps, a second link having an end pivoted to each of said traps, the points of pivoting of said link being on opposite sides of the points of pivoting of said traps so that said traps move simultaneously in the same direction, the arrangement of the connections being such that upon the opening of said door the traps are moved to an approximately horizontal position, to receive mail matter and to prevent access to the contents of the box; the weight of said traps normally holding said entrance doors closed.

3. The combination in a mail-box having an inlet opening of a door hinged at one edge of said openin a trap pivoted within the body of the mai -box, an arcuate guardplate attached to one edge of said trap and extending in close proximity to the rear face of said door, and a link connecting said door and said trap, the parts being so proportioned and the pivots so placed, that the distance between the rear face of said door and the nearest point of said guard plate is maintained practically constant throughout the travel of said door and guard plate.

WILLIAM B. BENHAM.

Witnesses WV. F. WOOLARD, G. PERRY. 

